Smuggling: Customs book 94 cases in city
Despite stringent security checks, attempts to smuggle goods continue unabated. The Customs department has registered 94 such cases pertaining to violation of Customs Act, 1962, since April 2011 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here. Undeclared goods top the list at an enormous amount of nearly Rs 3.93 crore, while smuggled drugs is estimated at Rs 1.23 crore. All the cases cracked depend purely on the expertise of the Customs officials who can detect the minutest discrepancy in the behaviour of passengers that helps them in intercepting suspects and carrying out checks. “Many people try to smuggle memory cards by concealing them on their body,” said an official.
In cases involving smuggling of foreign currency, officials reveal that about two-and-a-half months back, Customs officials nabbed a passenger heading for Hong Kong via Bangkok under Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) for carrying undeclared foreign currency worth $20,000 equivalent to Rs 11 lakh or so. “Money laundering by way of “smurfing”, wherein bulk cash used to convert black money into white or for fuelling illegal activities is carried in small amounts, to dodge the customs officials and intelligence agencies. The money is smuggled out and often deposited in small amounts in countries where the rules are not as stringent as that of Fema in India,” said an official.
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